This year’s winners of the F.G. Bressani Literary Prizes, awarded by the Italian Cultural Centre Society in Vancouver, were celebrated on November 7. Winnipeg writer and poet George Amabilewas a winner in two categories: Dancing with Mirrors won the poetry prize, while Small Change was given the award for short fiction. Winners also included historian Lynne Bowen in the non-fiction category for her volume Whoever Gives Us Bread, a history of Italian immigrants on Vancouver Island; and Vince Agro in the fiction category with his novel The Good Doctor. Vancouver writer Raymond Culosreceived an honourable mention in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the awareness and preservation of the history of Vancouver’s Italian community, which he has chronicled in five books, including the recent Injustice Served, an account of the internment of Italian Canadians in Western Canada during World War II. This year’s Bressani Prize Committee judges were City of New Westminster Poet Laureate and President of the B.C. Writers Federation Candice James, University of Toronto Italian Studies professor Salvatore Bancheri, and Simon Fraser University history professor Jack Little. The evening’s proceedings were emceed by Vancouver writer and journalist Anna Foschi.

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